Light in The Queen's Garden: Ida May Pope for Hawaii's Daughters

In the darkest era of Hawaiian history, the queen gave her people a garden as a sanctuary, a safe gathering place when it was illegal for them to gather in public . This event coincided with the Ida’s opening of the Kamehameha School for Girls in 1894. The garden’s name, Uluhaimalama, allegorically translates “as the plants grow out of the dark into the light so shall light come to the nation. ” For many Hawaiian girls, the school was their “Uluhaimalama,” and Ida Pope was the bright shining light in that garden. Her legacy as a guiding light for Hawaii’s daughters may be seen in this poem, penned by the renowned Mary Dillingham Frear:

IDA M. POPE

How many darkened ways her presence lightenedIn days of yore!What cheerless hearts her courage brightened!Still ring the echoes of her children’s laughter.God help the helpless ones and frightenedTo whom she held a torch-lit doorAnd guide them feebly, feebly, groping after Her—Gone before